Prisoner

Chapter 28

John Hansson

I had always loved the incredible architecture found on earth. St Peters Basilica, the Pyramids, the castles of Ireland and Scotland. They all had a sense of agelessness and majesty embodying each crumbling stone and steeple.

What I saw before me put all of those to shame.

The castle of Nekros sat above the huge city of Bescalrob in the Northernmost point of Strongmoor. The castle was easily a 700 feet tall and at least twice that long. Massive. It was built with a sort of black stone that's iridescent coating reflected the dying sunlight in such a way to make it look like it was a shimmering illusion, a mirage.

At least a dozen pointed steeples added more height to monstrous structure, each topped with a long metal spear that resembled a mix of a lightning rid and sword. Ugly, disfigured gargoyles, some looking dog or dragon-like, ran across almost the entire surface of the massive wall that ran around the perimeter. Each of these stone beasts were easily six feet tall and horribly realistic .

The before-mentioned wall that embraced the structure was lined with torches spouting green flames, which gave the dark stone an eerie coat, and dozens of armed soldiers wearing the thick black armor of those we had seen at the Linbridge camp. Each soldier looked to be around six and a half feet tall and held a massive broadsword and a shield along with a crossbow on their back. The seemingly only entrance to the cathedral was a single metal drawbridge that prefaced twenty foot high steel doors, both of which were heavily guarded. The moat underneath the drawbridge was filled with a purplish bubbling liquid, out of which, every few seconds, the head of some sort of small sea serpent or dragon would emerge.

And that was only what I could see from the inn balcony almost a hundred yards away. I lowered the telescope that ha been in our room when we arrived and handed it wordlessly to Adaryn, who stood beside me. He eagerly took it and placed the device to his eye. After only a moment of looking, he began to frown.

"Oh."

I looked down at him, astonished.

"Oh? Oh! Seriously? Adaryn, we have to break into that place!" I reminded him, trying to keep my voice quiet enough as to not attract the attention of the hundreds of people in the streets below us.

Adaryn took the telescope from his eye and pursed his lips tightly. "I see your concern."

My eyes widened more. "I see your concern?!" I nearly shouted.

Adaryn glanced at me. "You are not about to start repeating everything I say, are you?"

I groaned in frustration and turned away towards the double doors that stood between us and the inn room and put my hands on my hips.

"How exactly do you expect us to get in there?" I questioned him angrily.

After a moment, Adaryn answered. "Maybe...we could use a disguise. Like we did at the camp," he suggested.

I fought the urge to turn around and push him off the balcony.

"We can't kill a soldier in the middle of the biggest city on Malor!" I told him, turning back around.

Adaryn squinted, then raised the telescope back to his eye to look at something he had seen.

"Maybe we will not have to," he said pensively, and I could tell a plan was brewing in his mind.

"What?"

He beckoned me over with a thin finger, then handed me the telescope and pointed. I peered the device to see one thing: a large crimson flag hanging over the doors to the castle. I had seen it before, but had dismissed it of having any importance.

"So? It's a flag."

"A red flag."

"No, duh. If that gets you excited, Les Miserables would give you a heart attack," I teased.

The telescope was yanked away by a serious looking Adaryn.

"A scarlet flag on the castle. It means that a leader of the Strongmoor army has died. A huge ceremony with thousands of people will be held. Even the King will come down from his throne to address his subjects. No one will even notice us go inside!" He explained.

I realized what he was suggesting. "You want to assassinate King Nekros at a funeral in front of thousands of people?" I asked hesitantly, seeing more than one flaw in the hastily thought up plan.

"Exactly."

*

Adaryn pushed through the door to the inn room, locked it behind himself, and pulled the dark hood from his head.

"Did you find anything out?" I inquired. I was sitting on a thick mat on the floor, some sort of bed, I guessed, looking through our inventory. One stick of dynamite -still in in its protective casing- three steel arrows, a dagger, the ointment from Evangeline that we had never used, my tattered journal, and one small scrap of black bread that had gone stale in the bottome of my bag. I scrunched my nose and withdrew the morsel, studying it before tossing it onto the floor.

"The ceremony is to take place tomorrow at noon. We need a plan." Adaryn told me, looking at the discarded food with equal distaste. I set my satchel aside and stood with a tired groan, my sore legs protesting. All the strenuous traveling and such was quite a workout. I'd probably lost twenty pounds in the past few months.

"Right. We probably need different clothes, right? What about an invitation?" I asked. Adaryn gave me a funny look, like I was talking stupid.

"I do not believe that is our priority, John. We need a plan for what to do once we are inside," he told me. I frowned. Wouldn't we need invitations to get inside? I now realized one of Adaryn's problems: he had no freaking idea how to plan something out. Heck, our prison escape (led by him) had ended with him half dead and us right back where we had started.

"Okay. You worry about that. Let me make it easy for you. I'm definitely not gonna assassinate the king."

Adaryn looked a bit confused. "Why?"

Once again, I felt like throwing him off the balcony.

"It's the king, Adaryn! I'm not gonna kill the dictator of an alien world! You're the one with the bow and arrow and sword skills! You do it," I snapped at him. Adaryn stood silently for a moment, then turned away and proceeded to take off his cloak. "I thought you wanted to be the one to do it."

Adaryn slowly folded the cloak over his arm, smoothing out the wrinkles that formed with his free hand.

"I know," he told me, voice dropping a level, "it is just that all this is starting to become real now. Tomorrow, I will have to kill a man."

"A bad man."

He looked me directly in the eyes. "But a man, nonetheless. Do not think that I am taking this lightly."

"I'm not expecting you to. But when the time comes, don't you dare hesitate."

AN: Just another quick transition chapter. Thanks for reading! I guessing there will be around 2-4 chapters left including the epilogue.